When Bill Keller landed a store manager’s job with Dillard’s department store in the Valley 34 years ago, his wife, Dianne, said she wasn’t excited about moving to Arizona, much less Mesa — from Minneapolis.

Steve Kelly is the manager of Dryforce, a Mesa company that helps other businesses and facilities rebuild after being ravaged by fire and water damage.

That happy rainy day has arrived.

For more than two years, an iconic neon sign has been missing in action, so to speak.

It takes a heap of living to make a house a home, and for anyone who goes on the 13th Annual Mesa Historical Homes Tour, they’ll get to see that centuries of living took place through a diverse community and wide variety of structures.

There’s no place like home for the holidays, but for hundreds of pets discovered abandoned in homes due to foreclosure throughout the Valley, there would be no place like a permanent home.

For more than 70 years, Falcon Field has spread its wings in east Mesa to remain in flight and serve not only its own community, but the world.

Two Fountain Hills men who gained access to homes through a carpet cleaning company they worked for are being held in a Maricopa County jail, suspected of stealing more than $30,000 worth of jewelry to sell as scrap.

For more than five years, teams of employees at the Bank of America call center in Chandler have given what local food banks could only hope for during the season of giving while participating in a little friendly competition:

A valuable piece of the region’s economic impact puzzle came through a simple conversation between then Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell, local homebuilder Brad Curtis and a group of businessmen from Chase Bank a number of years ago.

For many years, Kyleigh Sousa and her mother, Karen Montenegro, would decorate Christmas trees in every room of the family’s home in New Jersey.

The Nativity scene with the manger and all the ceramic figures including Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus and the shepherds is tucked away in a box somewhere, likely at my mom’s house in Ohio with some of my other stuff I didn’t bring to Arizona when I moved to the Valley nearly seven years ago.

As Elizabeth Johnson, the Tempe mother of missing Baby Gabriel is preparing to exchange her black and white striped jail uniform for bright orange prison garb, a Scottsdale woman connected to the case will remain free.

The Arizona Department of Liquor Licensing and Control is investigating a Tempe bar where Arizona State University student Jack Culolias was last seen during a fraternity-sponsored pledge event attended by dozens of university underclassmen.

Nearly three years after the case of missing Baby Gabriel Johnson captured national attention, his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, was sentenced on Friday to 5.25 years of prison on offenses in connection to the case.

When musician Alice Cooper kicks off his signature charity fundraiser event “Christmas Pudding” at Comerica Theater with actor Johnny Depp and a host of other entertainers in Phoenix this weekend, a group of East Valley rockers will be taking the stage — and perform as the opening band.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and on Friday, a wonderful sound will be coming from Casino Arizona at Talking Stick during what promises to be a festive event with maybe some surprises.

Right now, a red Vans tennis shoe is the strongest lead that Tempe police have in the case of missing Arizona State University student Jack Culolias.

A second-year law student at Arizona State University, Adam Brown arrived at the new Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop in Mesa about 8 a.m. on Monday to be first in line for the grand opening of the shop, nearly 24 hours before its doors opened for business.

After performing about 80 three-and-a-half-hour shows, including a three-month European leg on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Wrecking Ball Tour during the past year, Nils Lofgren is getting ready to crash at home and have a break from what he describes as the “greatest musical job in the world.”

About a week before the body of Joann Rotz was found in a dirt lot on Lemon Street near Apache Boulevard, Rachel Hall said she argued with the homeless woman over not sleeping in her campsite area near Escalante Park.

A major fundraiser to support cancer research and programs for the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Phoenix Children’s Hospital is continuing to build on its holiday tradition.

Among many of Albert Schweitzer’s notable sayings is, "There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."

The Salvation Army Kettle bell ringers are ringin’; are you listening? The iconic bell ringers have a goal in mind; are you listening?

What would you do if you won $500 million?

It’s been a long time since the silt and vegetation along the walls of 131 miles of SRP canals throughout the Valley have been cleared away.

It’s beginning to look like a tumbleweed tree Christmas.

At the risk of raising ire from fans and lovers of Hostess snacks, I have to confess: I have never been a fan of Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Zingers or Suzie Q’s. And I would say, outside of eating a package of powdered-sugar doughnuts on rare occasion, I haven’t touched a Twinkie or Hostess cake in more than 30 years. They were just too sweet for me, and I never liked the taste of them.

Tom Cooper, the missions director of Broadway Christian Church in Mesa, said he knows it’s his job to help connect the community to Jesus Christ and help fulfill its needs.

Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hit king best known from the Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine” days and banned from baseball in 1989 for gambling on baseball including the Reds when he managed them, was scheduled to sign autographs for $70 a pop for a sports memorabilia shop at the Paradise Valley mall on Saturday.

The three men behind the counter of the shop on the second floor of Chandler Fashion Center each come from different backgrounds, but they each share more than a few things in common:

When Lawn Griffiths continued his 26 years of perfect attendance at the Kiwanis Club of Tempe’s weekly meetings at noon on Thursday, there’s no doubt that he and likely a number of his fellow Kiwanians put a “Happy Dollar” in the hat as it was passed around.

A few years ago, Leo Achin made a bunch of phone calls seeking services available to help take care of his ailing wife.

Step back in time inside the Sentimental Journey, a World War II-era restored B-17 bomber considered to be the best such restored airplane in the world.

A Chandler couple accused of locking their severely disabled 8-year-old son inside a bathroom while they left him home alone, remains free on bond while authorities are pushing forward with their prosecution.

Along a portion of State Route 87 — better known as Old Hunt Highway in the heart of the Gila River Indian reservation between Alma School and Dobson roads near Sacaton, Olberg Bridge reaches across desert that used to be a river.

After experiencing a downturn for the past few years with its historical amenities and watching its landmarks deteriorate as their futures remained uncertain, preservation officials in the city of Mesa now have the means to renovate them in the near future.

On a sun-splashed Higley High School football field blanketed with a warm autumn breeze on Friday, more than 3,000 people came to celebrate military veterans for their service and sacrifices they made through the decades for the freedoms we enjoy today that did not come for free.

Jack Jarzynka had driven past American Legion Post 39 in Gilbert “about 100 times,” so one Saturday night after he and his wife, Kathy, had dinner about six years ago, he decided to stop in for a 1950s and 60s dance.

Circle your wagons. By this weekend, downtown Mesa will be turning back the clock to more than a century ago when the city’s residents lived among cowboys, Indians, outlaws and scofflaws, and the horses they rode in on.